Barter Agreement PDF Template

A barter agreement is a type of document that allows for goods, services, products, and commodities to be traded legally. After signing, you create a legally binding agreement between the parties. A barter agreement can be conducted remotely or in person, on paper or electronically, and is a recognized type of contract in a court of law.

Barter agreements are typically made between individual persons, but they can be made between companies as well. The core tenet of a barter agreement is that unlike other contracts, where liquid consideration is given in exchange for other promises, a barter agreement includes only goods or services in exchange for other goods and services.

You’ll need to do all of the proper research and homework first, but this template will give you a head-start and a good framework. You should always consult a lawyer though before finalizing any contracts.

You may have seen a barter agreement at a swap meet, flea market, or at some kind of trade show. Usually, many people get together in one place, intending to make a bargain, and bringing along their valuables to trade. Before healthy economies existed with currency conversion, barter agreements were the only type of agreement people could make. You were required to bring valuable items of various levels with you so that you could obtain common goods or services.

Today, barter agreements work in much the same way as they always have, but on paper or in electronic form. In order to obtain the goods or services that you want, you need to promise another good or service to the other party. If both parties agree that the values of the offered goods and services are equal, then the barter transaction can be made. Of course, the majority of the time and energy spent on barter agreements is with the negotiation of this equality of both sides. Much negotiation and time might occur, long before parties are ready to start putting the results of their negotiations down on paper. Our template is designed to be fluid and to meet the demands of your negotiations. Whether or not you are trading goods, services, or all of the above, this barter agreement template has the flexibility to meet the needs of your transaction.

Barter agreements are often agreements of passion, or agreements that don’t necessarily fit with commonly held perceptions of value. Independent valuations of goods often aren’t part of the barter agreement, and the values are based on the individual’s perception. For these reasons, barter agreements are fast, and once the possession of goods or services is exchanged, usually very little time might pass before the entire agreement is complete. Barter agreements aren’t as easy to bring lawsuits or to make legally enforceable, because the majority of the agreement’s validity comes from the possession of the goods that have been traded.

Once barter agreements have been executed, and the goods have been exchanged, they are usually final. Pawnshops and discount outlets that might routinely engage in bartering activities with their customers often include a “no-cool-down” clause, which prohibits customers from getting returns. It’s included in the contract and usually emphasized with clear, concise language, to make the contract fair. Such clauses that prohibit normal rights to sue or to terminate a contract should be made prominent.

Because barter agreements are usually done as a negotiation between two people, the potential to “find” items that have a lot of value is quite good. If you are an expert on a particular type of good, and the person offering the item doesn’t know a lot about it, you can use your expertise to select items that have a high value. Then, you can sell those items in a market or to an individual that perceives a higher value for the item, and you can make a profit. Bartering thus can be a fun and profitable enterprise, requiring shrewd business people with lots of knowledge and expertise to pull off.

Even though your business acumen might be sharp as a tack, you might still be wondering how to take your professionalism to the next level. Your contracts in the past as a barterer might have been limited to handshake deals, otherwise known as oral contracts. If you want to make a business out of bartering, you probably will need to switch to a paper-based approach. Try electronic signatures, and even a more professional and high-tech way to make your bartering agreements.

When you make barter agreements and contracts electronically, your customers will be impressed by your technology-savvy mindset. Bartering is an old practice, stretching back to history without currency, and certainly without electronic devices. You can still embrace the positive aspects of bartering, such as its social values and the new friends and trust that you make in the business, and still have legally binding contracts.

With legally binding e-signature documents, such as with Kdan’s PDF Reader, you can sign without any hassle, customize your agreements quickly, and introduce peace of mind without taking away from the personal, open nature of barter and trade business. Take your mobile device or laptop to the next trade show, and make bartering agreements easily with a signature on a touch screen.

Our barter agreement is made to act as a legally binding contract, flexible enough to fit your business and the variations in your jurisdiction. Use the easily fillable format to create exactly the type of agreement you want, and include or exclude just the components you need to make a successful transaction. In addition, if you use PDF Reader, you’ll get all the benefits of a professional document cloud and management system. Trace all the agreements you’ve made, access e-signature audits, get email alerts, and more. Get official with your barter and trade agreements today with this electronically signable template by Kdan Mobile.